Musings Upon Returning to America

Shortly after we returned home, Barbara shared the following perspective on the “reverse culture shock” of returning to America from overseas. This was her e-mail to our extended family of adult children and grandkids.

Hello to each of you. We’ve missed being in touch and are anxious to reconnect this week.

While we are glad to be back in America, it is always a mixed blessing to return to our country. International travel has a way of clearing the fog from one’s own nationalistic view of life. America is a wonderful country, and we have been so blessed to experience its freedom and abundance, but returning home brings opportunity to see this way of life with more clarity.

So here are my thoughts today as I’m unpacking, doing laundry and working to reset my body clock.

We landed in NY yesterday at JFK airport (an 18 hour flight) at 6:30 a.m. After clearing customs, getting our bags rechecked on the domestic portion of the flight, and making our way to our gate, we stopped at Starbucks (which we missed, since coffee in South Africa is usually instant, not brewed). We sat in front of one of the many TVs in the terminal to catch up on the news via CNN. We had not seen any news, nor read any newspapers (other than the S.A. paper’s front-page headlines) since we’d left on the 23rd.

After watching for 30 minutes, it became clear that Solomon was right. There is nothing new under the sun. Three weeks without access to American news was no loss. There was no really news or new information.

In fact, I wanted to move away from the talking box and we did. The incessant chatter of the ever-present television in our country quickly became irritating. They were everywhere in the terminals and in the Delta lounge. All were “on” and filling the air with sound even if no one was listening, and very few were. And there was no way to turn them off. When we got home and stopped at the allergy clinic to get my shot, another one was “talking” to a nearly empty doctor’s office waiting room. I felt mildly assaulted. Clearly we Americans are not comfortable with silence and quiet.

On the plane, we read through the NY Times and USA Today, and two articles said more to us than the journalists and editors ever intended.

One was about the “new” Monopoly game. This was also featured on Fox news last night. Dennis said it is all “Much Ado about Nothing” and he is right. Most of what we read in the paper and saw on the news shows last night while we were trying to stay awake until 9:00 was silly, empty, and of no value. Shakespeare, like Solomon, got it right.

A second “story” was about the recent revelations that many high-profile people in our country have been lying on their resumes. Academic plagiarism by newspaper journalists, authors and college students now gives way to bold, unabashed lying about one’s credentials. America’s strength is rotting from the inside. Our moral sense of right and wrong is quickly eroding. This story left me feeling ashamed of our country and sad that we’ve sunk so low.

And then there is a return to the “stuff.” I always feel a need to purge, simplify and tidy my nest when we return from traveling, but an international trip heightens that significantly. The trap of consumerism is a uniquely American disease that we are exporting to the world. There is a lot of wealth in South Africa, just as there is in other countries on other continents. But we are creating a hybrid version for the masses that breeds a new level of selfishness and subtle greed. A hundred years ago, America sent the world its brightest and best as missionaries. Now we are sending the world a completely different message. And this doesn’t begin to touch the devastation we’ve wrought internationally with our message of divorce and free sex for all.

Nothing new under the sun, much ado about nothing, and observing an elevated level of pride and selfishness is a sobering awareness to return to. But God’s grace is greater than all our sin. How grateful I am for that wonderful truth!

Perhaps jet lag is not such a bad thing. It is giving me time to adjust my thinking. The real problem is maintaining that renewed perspective!

And then there are the observations from our time in Africa, but that is for another e-mail perhaps, or a phone call if we can schedule one.

Grateful for God’s great grace and mercy ... And grateful for each of you. May you continue to know Him increasingly with each day.

Love to each of you,

MOM